


Flaring Embers

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: The Travel Collection: Drabbles, Snippets, and Supershorts [79]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, GFY, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-16
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-01-04 21:04:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1085680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snippets and shorts for Flame of Durin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Remember

"I wish this to be inked." The elf is not like any other Knutr has met, her skin already patterned in swirls and dots everywhere he can see. He's heard of her, though, the elf that commanded the orcs of Gundabad, and had been one of King Thorin's great enemies before the retaking of Erebor.

She's holding a parchment with a pattern similar to what she already bears, and watching him with an expression that Knutr can only think of as grief, more clearly seen than on an elf who bears no ink.

He takes the parchment, studying the pattern, though he can't read the significance - and it must have some, or she would not wear it, that much he's certain of even without knowing her. "Where?" Knutr doesn't like her, but she is supposed to be an ally, so he will do as she's asked so long as she pays the fee.

The rustle of fabric makes him look up, waiting patiently as she strips off tunic and shirt, and turns to show him the barely-marked skin of her back. She reaches one hand around to touch a bare spot just below one shoulder. "Here. Where he may watch my back, though he cared not for me."

Knutr raises an eyebrow as she turns back around. "Who?"

"Your King." Her lips stretch in a smile that looks strange on her face. "I would remember such a worthy one who was both enemy and ally."


	2. Bright Laughter and Rich Music

Thranduil watches the trio of avari who had arrived with the mercenaries earlier in the spring, his expression carefully impassive. He knows of the two ellon, but had never met them directly. The elleth, though, is far more familiar, and it is her he watches more than the other two. Remembering bright laughter when his queen had been entertained by the eastern elf, and the rich, strange music that had danced as much as they had. Not the harps and flutes and singing of his woodland kin, but drum and dulcimer to accompany a chant more akin to a loremaster than anything else.

"Who is she, father?" Legolas has stayed near him, though Thranduil can see his son's desire to take greater part in the festivies of Thorin's coronation. He should send Legolas to enjoy himself, rather than keep company with a brooding elf who is feeling the weight of rule and ages past.

"A friend of your mother's." Thranduil had never quite called her friend himself, but he'd listened to her stories and songs. Heard of her bond-brothers, though she'd never named them as such. "She hasn't been west since before you were born."

Legolas looks intrigued, though he still doesn't go. "Lord Ráva introduced her as his mother."

An oddity that Thranduil still cannot resolve, as he would expect better manners from someone raised by Culdarusco - though perhaps she had less to do with his raising than his father, which might explain why Ráva is so utterly naive about so much of the world beyond the forests of the furthest east. Or it might perhaps be simply that Ráva does not see as others do, and Thranduil wonders at that as well.

"If she claims him as her son, I will trust she knows her own blood." Thranduil shrugs his shoulders slightly, taking a sip of the wine - a vintage that is quite good, though he cannot place it. Something new, no doubt a gift brought for Thorin from one of the far-flung dwarven halls to the south or east.

Legolas looks at him, raising an eyebrow, but doesn't comment on Thranduil's words. There's silence for a long moment before Thranduil sighs, flicking his fingers dismissively toward the celebration happening around them.

"Go. I do not require your constant presence to avoid a diplomatic incident."

A small smile crosses Legolas's face before he nods his head, leaving Thranduil to his brooding watch of the avari, and his goblet of wine.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "Grief".
> 
> Originally posted as part of [The Travel Collection](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754), in the chapter [A Cloak of Mourning](http://archiveofourown.org/works/439754/chapters/2183507).
> 
>  
> 
> For the list of original characters in this particular Alternate Universe, I will have, eventually, an appendix that is simply the list. It may take a while, since there are spoilers for plot points that aren't taken from canon in the descriptions of some of the characters.


End file.
